Who Uses SurveyMonkey to Create Political Surveys?

Get feedback on the issues that matter

Whether it’s an election year, a leap year, or both, SurveyMonkey allows you to gather feedback on the issues that matter. Political action committees, city council members, political consultants, school board districts, government agencies, and more rely on SurveyMonkey online surveys to get the insights they need to drive their causes and run quick polls on hot-button issues.

Why send out political surveys?

Identify supporters for your campaign. Send out a questionnaire to gather information from reps, party members, constituents, and donors. Who is most likely to help move your political cause forward? Map the political landscape by polling voters, fine tune your marketing message to reach and maintain supporters, and get feedback on the platforms before making the pitch to general electorate.

Gather feedback from constituents. Poll voters in local districts to identify party affiliations. What concerns weigh on them the most? What would they look to political officials to solve? How satisfied are they with the state of local infrastructure, schools, foreign affairs, and the economy? What is the general outlook on political and public affairs? Is the public satisfied with the direction of the country under the current head of state and leadership? Send out an online questionnaire to find out.

Organise rallies. Need to plan a political event? Survey attendees to gauge the success of the entire event from start to finish. Organise volunteers, send out invitations, collect attendee data, and gather pre- and post-event feedback. You can also gather valuable donor feedback from those helping to fund your cause or sign up election-day volunteers with an online form from Wufoo.

Just for fun. Not sold on media-sponsored polls? Create your own. How do friends, family, or colleagues lean politically? What issues matter to them? From environmental regulations, national health care, welfare, minimum wage and more, find out what your social circle has to say. If it’s voting season, find out who is more than likely to tune into a candidate debate? If they were headed to the polls today, who would they vote for? Are your friends right wing, left wing, or centrists? Are they generally more liberal or conservative, socialist or capitalist-minded? Most of the time you can’t fit personal beliefs in a specific box, so use Likert scale questions to discover the most likely results.

Political event feedback. How well received was your fundraiser or rally? What aspects would have resulted in greater participation among attendees? Did attendees find the event to be organised, did they benefit from the information given? Did they agree with information and tenor presented at the event or were they opposed? What other topics would they have liked to see covered?

Local elections. From PTA, to city council or government, school board committee, neighbourhood watch officers, and homeowners’ association presidential elections, online surveys make it easy to get those elections underway. Efficient and quick, online surveys can streamline the entire process.

Political science research. Use a questionnaire to dive into political research. For instance, how does a certain population feel about media coverage, consistency of political coverage, and political participation? Do opinions shift during an election year? How have recent legislative or judicial actions affected the daily lives of the populace? Use open-ended survey questions to discover the buzz on any political issue imaginable, such as feedback on the latest United Nations resolution, revised government subsidy or education funding bill.

Business and economic issues. Ask voters to weigh in on issues related to commerce and the strength of the economy. Assess the economic outlook of the population before crafting a campaign platform. Are citizens concerned about a recession or an economic bubble? Use online polls to gauge investor confidence. Is the stock market experience a bull or bear-trading session? Do constituents feel that their leadership is effectively managing a budget deficit or surplus? What kinds of decisions are small businesses and large enterprises making on with respect to anticipated tax burdens or inflation?

Speech reactions. Tuned in the most recent political convention and dying to see what your friends thought? Poll them and find out. The results are sure to stoke a lively discussion, and just might uncover party affiliations you hadn’t otherwise realized. Why wait for the pundits to analyse the speech in the media? You can have instant results by embedding a survey on Facebook.

Winning Tips for Political Surveys

Keep it anonymous. Survey takers should know exactly how their responses will be handled. They’re more likely to answer more questions—and more candidly, at that.

Use question randomisation. Question order can influence how people respond to your survey. For example, if you have the following questions in the following order: 1.What is the best thing about schools in your district? 2. How satisfied are you with how your local politician is handling her job? Just answering Question 1 can affect how people answer Question 2. To help reduce bias, randomise your questions.

Test, test, then test some more. Have several peers or colleagues take your survey before you send it out. They can provide valuable feedback on the clarity of the questions and answer choices/structure.

Choose the appropriate sample size. Predicting election results with surveys and polls can only be accurate when the survey sample precisely represents the eventual decision makers. Choose your sample wisely and be sure to include respondents from all of the appropriate demographics.

Ready to get started?

You don’t have to spend load of money to get answers. You just need to take advantage of smart, cost-effective tools, available with SurveyMonkey online surveys. And with our methodologist-certified questions and survey templates, it’s easy to jump right in.

Not sure how to reach the right people? SurveyMonkey Audience gives you access to millions of respondents ready to provide the answers you need to make critical decisions.